The present invention generally relates to the field of distributed computing and the field of telecommunications. Specifically, the present invention relates to providing a graphical user interface (GUI) for a distributed switch having multiple operators.
Traditional nondistributed network switches are maintained by maintenance technicians remotely located. Typically, multiple maintenance technicians can interact simultaneously with a single switch to perform maintenance activities in parallel. Multiple maintenance technicians performing maintenance simultaneously of course gives rise to potential interference between the maintenance technicians. Consequently, coordination among maintenance technicians is required; this coordination tracks what maintenance is scheduled in the nondistributed switch and what non-maintenance activities are occurring in the switch during the scheduled maintenance.
In addition, coordination and communication between remote maintenance technicians and local maintenance technicians may be required. A remote maintenance technician may need to call a local technician to go to the switch to perform physical equipment replacements. The local technician may not be familiar with the equipment and the remote technician needs to talk through the maintenance procedures with the local technician.
Moreover, because many individuals can log into and interact with a traditional nondistributed network switch, the processing load imposed on the switch often increases as more and more individuals interact with the switch. The non-maintenance related activities can interfere with some maintenance activities, such as rebooting the software utilized by the switch. Furthermore, as a switch requires maintenance, the likelihood increases that more and more individuals, particularly individuals not related to maintenance, will interact with the switch to, for example, monitor the switch's performance.
Known methods for monitoring individuals logged into a computer system are limited to text commands which provide cryptic character-based output. For example, the UNIX "who" command displays a list of an individual's login name, terminal name and login time. The UNIX "who" command also can store to a file all logins, logouts, reboots and crashes since the file was created. Special characters are used to indicate certain activities; for example, the character ".about." is used to in place of a device name to indicate a reboot has occurred for that device.
Known methods for monitoring individuals logged into a computer system suffer several shortcomings. An individual's login name, terminal name and login time are displayed in a cryptic format with alphanumeric codes generally unintelligible to the untrained maintenance technician. The maintenance technician typically uses a manual to translate the displayed codes into useful information which is typically limited to specifying the activity being performed on a specific processor. Moreover, for a maintenance technician to logout users and initiate maintenance activities, the maintenance technician must perform multiple steps requiring manual input of character-based commands with particular syntax, options and parameters. The maintenance technician is susceptible to making errors in translating the displayed codes or manually entering character-based commands.
Furthermore, known methods for monitoring individuals logged into a computer system cannot provide information on computer operating systems performing, for example, automated tasks on the computer. For example, the UNIX "who" command only displays information on human individuals logged into the computer system, but displays no information on operating systems that may be performing automated maintenance activities on the switch.
The problems associated with multiple maintenance technicians and multiple non-maintenance individuals interacting with traditional nondistributed network switches are exacerbated in the environment of distributed network switches each having multiple interconnected processors. In this distributed network switch environment, additional maintenance technicians may be required, additional individuals may interact with the various distributed processors, and additional coordination between technicians and individuals interacting with the distributed switch likely may be needed. Furthermore, a distributed network switch can have multiple operating systems performing automated tasks on the processor(s) within the distributed switch.